Author Archives: Alan Pugh

“Write Me Off, Give Up On Me”

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In a very distant time and place, MySpace was of the utmost importance to myself and my much younger peers.  Changing your Top Friends was a major social event and could lead to drama the likes of which TNT doesn’t even know.  Profile pictures, headlines, and profile names were the easels of a generation of quasi-artistic attention-seekers, the generation whose parents were both working and thought one kid was enough, so there was never anyone to show them approval for their latest exploits.  Who better to turn to than each other? Continue reading →

A Good Monday? Apparently, Anything’s Possible

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I barely got any sleep last night.  Two hours would be a liberal estimate.  Today was pretty much a lost cause before I got out of bed, or so I thought, but then I felt a bounce in my step at 7am for no apparent reason.

I think it really started yesterday.  It was a pretty productive day… after a rough start to the weekend, Kristin and I turned the house from a trainwreck into a Continue reading →

Royalties to Plant a Garden? Monsanto Case Has High Stakes

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Over the past several months, a case has been working its way through the system pitting a small-town farmer against agribusiness giant Monsanto.  The case, like 145 others brought by the corporation, hinges on what CNN called “unusual planting methods” by 76 year old farmer Hugh Bowman.  The unusual method?  Planting seeds without paying a royalty.

No, really… they’re suing him for the “unusual” practice of planting the seeds generated by the previous year’s crops because it violates their intellectual property. Continue reading →

Refinancing and hitting the gym: I’m only doing one of them right now

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OK, first… I find it odd that my Love posts are getting more… uhhh… love than my rage posts.  I always assumed the political stuff was far more interesting than the mundane details of my personal life.  Yesterday’s post was one of my favorites, but it’s not really getting a lot of traction.  Not that I care, mind you, but I just don’t see what could possibly be interesting about my day. Continue reading →

Overwhelmed Apathy and the Modern American Socialist

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Free healthcare and education.  Land reclamation for public use.  Labor theory of value.  Union representation and collective contracts.  Freedom from advertising.  Legalization of “drugs.”  Rehabilitation over incarceration.  Strength through peace.  Producing, selling, and buying local.  Public transportation.  The end of discrimination in all directions.

We’ve barely scratched the surface.  Want to take a guess why no leftist political movement ever gets far in the United States before fizzling? Continue reading →

Valentine’s weekend, spring and summer concerts, and the weather

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Wow.  First blog post of February 2013.  I really thought, after such an active January, that I’d maintain some consistency, but I’ve really had some off weeks.  I can’t really explain the differences, but from one week to the next, I can go from hyper-productive mode to super-zoned-out mode, and it affects everything from my blog to my obligations around the house to getting my lists of actual work knocked out from day to day.  I’ve been trying to catalog the differences (did I skip that early cup of black tea?) so I can pinpoint what truly drives me, but it’s still up in the air for now. Continue reading →

Vacation has been booked! -or- Saving thousands of dollars using points!

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(Note: Tonight’s blog is only going to be about the vacation I have booked for early April.  If you have a jealous streak or you tend to think anyone who’s excited about a trip is “bragging,” this post might not be for you.  I recommend coming back tomorrow.)

It’s official!  As of last night, Kristin and I are booked on a trip that will take place in exactly two months. Continue reading →

“Credit Card Transaction Fees” will not be the end of shopping as we know it

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I have a tendency to stick with pretty broad topics on the political section of this blog.  I don’t deal with “the news of the moment” too often due to the 24 hour news cycle and all the noise that already exists to debate the day’s happenings.  However, I’ve noticed a keen interest in this topic from my friends, many of whom work in retail, or have in the past.  This week, where allowed by law, businesses which accept credit cards are now permitted to pass along the credit card surcharges to the customer, currently ranging from 1.5% to 4.0%. Continue reading →

Nice weather, upcoming travel, and a little sobriety

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This weekend was phenomenal, in a word.  I’ll discuss the genesis of it later, but for now, I want to recap (and relive) it.  It won’t be the wild party you may know me for if you’re a personal acquaintance, but that’s sort of the point.  It started out with a Friday night out for dinner at a little local place over in Lakewood where I had shrimp tacos for the first time… not totally my thing, but not bad.  We got to bed early, slept in, and lounged around the house for a bit until we left for the West Side Market. Continue reading →

The average CEO has already made over a million dollars in 2013

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(First, on a personal note, sorry for the delay on blog posts lately.  I had a good run for a few weeks and I plan to get back to that consistency.  My post tomorrow (hopefully) will explain in more detail.)

I often hear challenges from my conservative libertarian friends when I raise the issue of wage gaps.  They have a complete list of excuses why it’s completely acceptable for someone to make millions while putting others in the unemployment line.  Here’s some of the best lines I’ve heard from C-Level apologists: Continue reading →